JNJR
by ThatGuyOrby
Summary: Julien, a seemingly tough but socially inept fist-fighter, is in his last year at Signal. When an unexpected issue leaves Beacon needing another student, he is chosen to fill the spot. While excited to attend the unexpected appearance of someone from his past threatens to destroy his new life. Only time will tell where this new life of his will lead him. (Mild Language, Violence)
1. The Beginning of Something

**JNJR**

** Prologue: **

Ever since the beginning of time mankind was assailed by the Grimm. The Grimm are terrible massive black-bodied creatures of innumerable shapes and sizes hell-bent on destroying any and all living things. Mankind with the power of souls defended themselves and with the wrath of the elements fought back and repelled the beasts but they would not stop. The beasts always kept coming back, no matter how many fell dozens would take their place. Those who vowed to combat the Grimm no matter what their reasons took on the name of valiant Hunters. With the threat of the Grimm always present, humanity needed full-time protectors and so special schools were opened across the kingdoms to officially train future generations of Huntsmen and Huntresses to combat the Grimm. This is the story of one such Hunter and his team but more so it's a story of choices, friendships, mistakes, struggles, and tragedies. Through it all these character will enjoy and suffer through all of these things and will be changed by them.

** Chapter 1: The Beginning of Something**

A mirror is a lot like a metaphor, of course when you look in it you see yourself but you see far more and often what you see nobody else can. It's a lot like a hidden meaning and as such is similar to a physical representation of a metaphor. In one such mirror a boy sees a dark background, a bruised and isolated child standing stubbornly in the foreground, a determined expression but plagued by an underlying feeling of uncertainty. This boy was me, this was my starting point.

It was early in the morning as I found myself walking down the street towards Signal Academy. Another boring day was laid out in front of me full of studying and stale repetitive combat drills. I sighed as I looked up into the early sky. The sun was casting a golden twilight over the island of Patch.

I'm Julien Thompson, a Huntsman in training for what it's worth. I'm sixteen years old, stand at an impressive six feet and two inches, weighing about two hundred and twenty-five pounds, I have a sturdy and slightly broad-shouldered build, I have pale white skin, ice blue eyes, and short slightly curled cool brown mess of hair. While being big for my age I was roughly above average for an adult leaning slightly on the bigger side but not overly so.

The sun glinted lightly off my black leather jacket. It's a rather nice jacket if I say so myself. It has two diagonal zippers on the upper left side of the front, a breast pocket on the right, a raised collar with clasps meant to be buckled when it's zipped up, shoulder straps, soft fabric cuffs where the sleeves ended and around the waist. On the right shoulder strap a small round blue metal pin with a silver rim depicting a yellow star over a crimson ribbon rested prominently. Under my unzipped jacket I wore a snow white long-sleeve shirt and around my neck loosely hung a slim silver chain with a hidden symbol hanging from it but tucked into my shirt it was impossible to see. My legs were adorned in baggy dark blue jeans that rested over bulky black combat boots with crimson interiors and accented laces on my feet which added a couple inches to my height.

I stopped right outside the gates of Signal and looked up at the castle-like academy. It was basically high school designed to teach you how to kill monsters. So basically high school except the teenagers are armed with high-grade weaponry. Surprisingly that hasn't backfired yet in the many years the school has existed.

Other kids filed past me through the gates as I stood there. I sighed and continued my walk into the school. I stepped through the massive doors and into the main hall and quickly started making my way through halls and up sets of stairs around other students. I walked into my classroom and sat down at my usual spot. The room was a large lecture hall with tables across the raised rows and my seat was at the top of the right side of the room the whole way over by the wall, not due to how many kids there were in fact there was a couple rows ahead of me completely vacant but I sat near the back due to preference.

I was one of the first students into the class as per usual so I sat down, put on some music, and rested my head in my arms as I waited. I slipped my sapphire blue headphones out of my bag and got comfortable. I put on my usual mix of music ranging from power metal to classic rock and even some classical music. I have quite the range of interests which range from slow classical music, to punk rock, power metal, and classic rock. I listened to my usual mix until I felt a distinct thud against my aura surrounding my head. I looked up and glanced around. I finally looked down at the desk and there was a book that wasn't there was a second ago.

I picked it up and read the title. Hunter's Journal Volume VI, Hunter duels. The Hunter's Journal series was a series of books specifically made to inform students on being a Hunter. It was a large hard covered book covered in a metal rim. I looked down at the teacher and they motioned for me to turn off my music.

"Seriously? What an ass..." I thought to myself.

Nonetheless I tapped the side of my headphones and turned the music off and gave a thumbs up. Of course most of the class broke into immature chuckles. I rolled my eyes and sat the book down in front of me.

"-As I was saying, if you would, please turn to page twenty-two and read through to page thirty-six. You'll be writing a brief essay of the pages and what are the standard rules of a duel between two Hunters and the first recorded duel." He went on.

I read over the pages much faster than the other kids and finished it with ease. History and writing are my best subjects and I even found the story and rules to be interesting. I blazed through the assignment and the teacher read over it and didn't show any surprise at all when he took a piece of chalk and marked down my score for all to see. It's was an A+ of course.

"Impressive as always Mr. Thompson, you may have the rest of this class to yourself." He said rolling his eyes.

I nodded and returned to my seat. I could tell I was catching judgmental glares but I didn't mind them. I know I'm not the most well liked kid here. The only kid in my rough age group that ever tried, unsuccessfully, to talk to me had her training accelerated and was going into Beacon early. The first day at Beacon started tomorrow and I felt almost sad. I'm not the most sociable and never actually responded to her but I almost missed her. I think her name was Ruby or something…

I sighed remembering the days with my older friends. They were all a year ahead of me and graduated into Beacon before me just like that red girl leaving me all alone in a school I'm pretty sure hates me. I met them roughly a year and a half to maybe two years ago, when I moved to Patch. I don't know how long I was out for but I was awoken by the bell signaling the end of class. I gathered my stuff and threw on my headphones as I made my way towards combat class. After a short walk I stepped through the door into the massive training room and noticed that most of the other kids were sitting around fiddling with their weapons before class. I knew I had roughly five minutes before class so I took a seat on the floor against the wall and shut my eyes.

I laid there for god knows how long until I felt a distinct tap against the side of my boot. Confused for a split second being abruptly awoken from a short nap I looked up to see a certain sunny haired eccentric teacher standing over me. It was Mr. Xiao Long. I smiled lightly as I recognized the upbeat and friendly teacher.

"Hey kid, you alive down there?" He asked with a slight chuckle.

"Uh, yeah." I nodded quickly pulling my headphones down and out of my hood.

"Good, because I would hate to have to keep the good news to myself." He said offering me a hand up.

I took his hand and with what seemed like minimal effort he pulled me right to my feet.

"What's up Mr. Xiao Long?" I asked.

"You know how at Beacon Hunter fireteams are made up of four students?" He asked.

"Yeah, who doesn't?" I nodded.

"Well apparently they're one student short so I received a message from Beacon's headmaster professor Ozpin. He wants me to send him one student who I think is ready for Beacon." He said resting his hand on my shoulder.

"You don't mean…" I began.

"I do, kid. You're far beyond any of the other kids here and you've consistently proven it time and time again." He said looking me in the eyes, his deep blue eyes a much darker shade than my own.

"But I'm not ready, I haven't even taken the Huntsman's Preliminary Slaying Assessment!" I protested.

"Students refuse to spar with you because you put every single one that ever chose you as a partner into the infirmary. I know of maybe a handful of kids I've trained that were like that. Trust me, you're more than ready. I already gave Ozpin your name and he already suspected I'd choose you." He noted.

"Ozpin knows who I am?" I asked apprehensively tensing up.

"He's the headmaster of one of the most renowned hunter academies across all of Remnant, he knows every Huntsman in training to some extent." He said as if it was obvious.

"Now come on, class is about to start. Ozpin requested I send him so recordings of you in training to help him make his final decision." He said motioning for me to follow.

All the kids started to assemble in the middle of the large training room in a random jumble of kids sitting on the floor in front of a chalk board. It was far from the best classroom possible but it gave us the space we needed to show off our abilities.

I sat relaxed easily ten feet behind the closest kid but I could both see and hear just fine so I was fine. Mr. Xiao Long sighed seeing me sitting far behind everyone and gave me an empathetic glance but began to teach anyway. He was one person constantly trying to get me to talk to people and socialize but to put it lightly, I wasn't interested. I'm still convinced he had something to do with that girl talking to me because if I remember right she's his daughter.

"Alright class I'm sure you all know that it's an odd day on our schedule meaning it's a practical training day, that means sparring. Find a partner, prepare, and begin. Julien, you'll be my partner as per usual." He announced.

I simply nodded and jumped to my feet. As I walked over to him the other kids moved aside to avoid me. I just rolled my eyes and followed Mr. Xiao Long as he lead me a decent way from where the other groups were sparring.

"We'll start with a routine sparring session, as per usual you may use your weapon if you want to but once again I will be going unarmed." He instructed.

I simply shook my head, raised my hands, and tightened and lowered my posture falling into a boxer's stance.

"Alright then, let's begin." He smirked.

I came at him fast throwing a flurry of mix-up left jabs and light right punches which not surprisingly he slipped expertly but I wasn't really trying to hit him, more feeling out his defenses. I threw a powerful left hook which just grazed his ribs but still rocked him slightly but he quickly recovered and struck out with powerful right straight kick that even though I blocked it sent me skidding back almost three feet leaving me momentarily breathless and my arms tired but thanks to my aura it didn't hurt that bad.

"That's some power you've got there, not to mention that nice block, kid. That's some solid defense, and here I thought I might actually knock you down." He smiled.

"It'll take a lot more than a little kick to knock me down." I said pressing in again with a quick lunging right uppercut.

I thought just maybe by coming in so quickly I might've caught him off guard and it might connect but by the time my hand would've reached his chin he was already at my right side and hit me with a hard right jab to my side making me stumble almost two full steps to the left but he pushed the attack with lightning fast jabs. I managed to get my arms up again and blocked them head on while slipping as many as I could just keeping my torso and face protected but he was pushing me back.

I dug in and held my ground and began to throw punches in return but nothing seemed to be able to connect until he threw a right straight that I managed to slip and then I landed a perfect overhand right to his chin causing him to stumble back a step. At first he had a surprised expression but then it changed to a smile.

"See, there you just proved that I made the right choice. Not to brag but it takes quite a bit to surprise me and a really hard hit to knock me back. You slipped my straight like a pro and delivered a killer punch. If my aura was down you might've knocked me clean out." He beamed.

"I think you're overselling it just a bit." I rolled my eyes.

"Alright to be fair I wasn't going as hard as I could've but I wasn't just messing around. You landed two clean and powerful hits on a professor in a sparring match and you're telling me I have the wrong student? Come on, you know you're ready." He said laying his hand on my shoulder and looking me in the eye.

"But am I? I mean we're talking about skipping an entire year here. What if I fail, what if I'm not ready, what if I'm not good enough…how can you be so sure?" I asked.

He let out a light sigh and looked me right in the eye.

"Ever since the first day you stepped foot into my class you've never been the one to try to stand out or attempt to outshine your peers. You were just the kid in the back of the class quietly taking in every lesson thrown at you and using it to further yourself. You're one of the strongest, fastest, toughest, and intelligent kids I've ever taught and far outclass anybody else I could've picked to push into Beacon early." He assured me.

I looked him in the eyes and smiled under my scarf.

"Thanks Mr. Xiao Long, you're the best." I said giving him a nod of appreciation.

"Alright then, I'll tell Ozpin that you're ready. Meet me after class and we'll talk about it more." He said clearly pleased.

"Speaking of, it seems class is almost over." I said catching the time from the class clock in the corner of my eye.

"Alright, go get your stuff from your locker and meet me back here. By the time you get back class will be out considering where your locker is." He instructed.

"Alright, I'll be back soon then." I said walking and giving him a casual two fingered wave walking out the door and making my way down the hall.

I stopped in the middle of the hall and thought about what had just happened. I'm still incredibly uncertain but Mr. Xiao Long seemed so certain and he's one of the best teachers at Signal so maybe I am ready…

"Well…no going back now, I already made my choice." I sighed with a slight shrug to myself before continuing down the hall.

The walk to my locker took several minutes as it was on the complete opposite side of the school to the training room. It's usually recommended that students store their weapons in their lockers but I generally ignored this due to my locker's inconvenient location. After walking through the twisting hallways I found myself standing in front of my locker.

I looked over it and realized this would likely be the last time I saw it and my eyes softened in nostalgia. This had been my locker for all the years I'd been at Signal, even if it was only around two and a half at best, and had more than a couple marks from me and my friends. I pulled open my locker and scoffed at my disorganized pile of papers and books but pulled out my more important and cherished books and a couple small mementos I had collected with my older friends over the years. I stuffed them all into my dark blue backpack and slung it over my shoulders. I slowly closed my locker and let out a short sigh before walking back towards the training room.

When I walked back into the room it was dark with all the lights off which confused me but suddenly a spotlight flipped on revealing Mr. Xiao Long and two other adults standing next to him. One was an older man who while not sporting wrinkles on his face had wavy medium length white hair. He was tall and of an average build. He wore a forest green turtleneck under a dark green vest with a cross attached to the front of the neck and a formal deep green-black suit. He had his hands rested on a rather interesting looking cane and looked at me with a small but friendly smile when I entered.

The other was a blonde haired lady with her hair styled in a very teacher-like style and pale white skin. She wore a fairly stylish teacher getup with a white shirt with long baggy sleeves ending in cuffs around her wrists and a black corset leading down to a short black skirt over black slacks that lead down into matching heeled boots. She wore a black cape that was deep purple on its interior and held what looked like either a long wand or a whip. When I entered the room she looked at me with either harsh judgement or disapproval either way she was definitely not pleased to see me.

"Over here, Julien." Mr. Xiao Long called wearing his usual friendly smile.

I slowly walked over to them apprehensively until I stood just outside of the ring of light around them. When I hesitated to enter the light the older man looked over to Mr. Xiao Long.

"Not the most confident, is he?" He asked.

"He's not the most…sociable…but he's more than ready for what's ahead." He assure him.

He looked back to me and eyed me over. Just now did I realize how piercing his golden-eyed stare was.

"Well if there was any doubt of that he wouldn't be standing here." He shrugged.

"Where are my manners? My name is Professor Ozpin, I'm the Headmaster of the Beacon Hunter's Academy. The school you'll be attending rather soon if all goes well. Now if you would please, step forward into the light." He requested.

With a hesitant step I entered the spotlight.

"Excellent, now if you would, please take a seat." He said.

"But there isn't-" I began to say.

"Look to your left." The lady said cutting me off.

As if it had just appeared out of thin air a black folding chair stood quite obviously right beside me. I was confused but didn't bother asking about it instead moving the chair behind me and sitting down facing the group which had also seated themselves.

"Julien Thompson, a third year at Signal Academy, an exemplary student in all classes peered by few even among much older students and unmatched in his grade. One of the best students to ever pass through Signal Academy. At least that's what your student file and records would leave me convinced of, and that's all well and good but records written by others can often times be flawed I'd much rather you tell me about yourself." Ozpin said leaning in.

"I'm not entirely sure about any of that…I'm not particularly smart and am definitely not the best fighter. I'm just a tough as nails kid that pays attention in class. There's not really anything special about me save for maybe my semblance but then again who doesn't have that going for them?" I said nervous at first, surprised by the unexpected positive notes in my file.

"I've seen your training and class recordings. You've fought on equal footing with your instructor in unarmed combat and finished advanced assignments in almost half the time it took other top-scoring students." He pointed out.

"I've got a good memory for materials covered in class and write fast. When it comes to fighting with Mr. Xiao Long he has me completely outclassed and goes easy on me every time. I may be above my class mates in combat but it's nothing near professional level." I said shaking my head a bit.

"Rather modest for such a talented young man." He noted.

"If you call honesty modesty then sure…" I said with a slight shrug.

"Fair enough. I've heard enough regarding your abilities but let me ask you one question." He said with a piercing stare.

"Go ahead." I nodded.

"Why do you want to become a Huntsman? With your strength and knowledge you could easily become a rather successful teacher, police officer, soldier, or any multitude of other well respected professions. So why a Huntsman?" He asked tilting his head to the side.

"As petty as this is going to sound…entertainment if that's the best way to describe it." I answered.

"So you seek the adventure being a Huntsman will bring?" He suggested.

"Yeah." I nodded enthusiastically.

"I mean, well…I grew up always going through normal school and life being constantly bored with the constant and predictable routine of normal life. At first I thought it wasn't that bad but eventually I found myself being bored by everything and wishing to escape my boring life. One day I saw a poster for Beacon Academy with pictures of Huntsmen and Huntresses, I was instantly hooked by the cool weapons and awesome powers but even more so by the promise of adventure. Being a Huntsman would offer me a life that brings constant adventure and being a Huntsman I'll also be able to help people along the way. I know it's probably not the most selfless or original reason…but it's mine." I explained.

"It's just as good as any other." Ozpin said not even breaking his intense stare.

I almost jumped from surprise.

"Really?" I asked.

"You weren't satisfied with your life so you aspired to change it and dedicated yourself to reach that goal and in the end you'll be helping others by helping yourself. I don't see anything wrong with that reasoning." He said leaning back cracking a friendly smile.

"I mean when you put it like that…" I said ecstatic he liked my answer and that he could give it meaning.

"I see great potential in you, young man. So you want to come to my school?" He asked.

"Yes, more than anything." I nodded.

"Then I hope to see you tomorrow at the entrance ceremony." He smiled standing from his chair.

"Really?" I asked excited.

"Of course." He chuckled turning and vanishing into the darkness with his female companion.

I was stunned but undeniably happy.

Mr. Xiao Long walked up to me with the biggest simultaneously smug and legitimately happy smile I've ever seen on him.

"Congratulations, kid. I knew he'd like you." He said with a slight chuckle.

"I can't believe it…I-I'm going to Beacon!" My eyes lit up as I jumped to my feet.

"Don't act so surprised I told you I believed in you. I only say that when I mean it." He said crossing his arms.

"Alright fair enough, but the Headmaster of my dream school just personally accepted me into his school a year early. Can you see where that'd be just a little exciting?" I said practically bouncing.

"Of course, of course. Calm down, you need to get run home and gather your stuff and prepare. Every student lives on campus in the dorms at Beacon so I'd recommend packing well." He advised.

"Oh right! I almost forgot, I need to get home and pack! Alright, see you later Mr. Xiao…Long…I won't be seeing you again, will I?" I realized.

"Not too likely kiddo." He sighed.

"I…I want to say thank you Mr. Xiao Long. I wouldn't have ever made it this far without you. You've been the best teacher I've ever had and I wouldn't be half the fighter I am now without you. Even if you did teach me by knocking me on my butt countless times." I said with a reminiscent smirk.

"I find it that's the best way to teach somebody their weaknesses. You've still got a long way to go but I've taught you as much as I could in your years here now it's up to your new teachers to guide you. You were truly one of my best…maybe not better than my daughters but you can't blame a man for being just a bit biased." He chuckled.

"I mean fair enough; both were rather terrifying in their own right. I think I lucked out being literally in between them in years. Didn't have to fight either of them." I pointed out.

"They would've totally whooped your butt." He smirked.

"Oh sure. I'm just glad because they would've kicked my whole lazy routine out the window by giving me actual competition." I rolled my eyes.

"Fair enough." He sighed.

"Well…I need to get going now. Can't miss the airship home or it's a long train ride. Thanks for everything, teach. I hope we see each other again someday…maybe then I'll manage to knock you on your butt for once." I said giving him a two fingered wave.

"Don't get yourself killed, kid. I wouldn't want to think I wasted so much time training you." He said waving back.

With that I ran out the door, through the halls, and out the main door just in time to catch my usual airship home.

"Cutting it close, Blue eyes. Almost had to leave without you." The elderly man piloting the airship noted.

"Well, this will be my last ride so you won't have to worry about that anymore." I said with a slight smile.

"You finally get expelled or something?" He asked.

"Or something." I responded taking a seat in the back of the ship to avoid interacting with the other kids onboard with my back resting right beside me.

My stop was the fourth in the airship's run so I had a fair amount of time to gaze out the window at the scenery while I waited for my stop to come up. Compared to other kids who live on patch my house was on the northern outskirts of the island about an hour's walk away from most other houses.

I almost slipped into sleep sitting there in my seat as per usual whenever I'm not doing anything. That's one of my major flaws I'd say. Whenever I have nothing to do or am bored I kinda just shut down. According to my dad "my default setting is off". I dipped into sleep but sat up and shook my head when I felt my forehead tap the seat in front of me.

I glanced out the window and around the ship and realized that what I thought was a couple seconds must've been a fairly long nap as most of the other kids were gone and the airship was descending on my drop off point. I threw my arms back through the straps of my bag and tightened them before standing the second the ship came to a stop and jumped off right in front of my house.

I took a couple steps looking down before I stopped and looked up. I sighed staring up at the old dark brown wooden tiles on the outside of the small two story house. I closed my eyes for a second took a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth before reopening them.

"This feels like the start of something rather…interesting." I decided with a nod.

I quickly moved up the porch steps and through the front door and closed it behind me calling a close to the work of the day and with that a close to this chapter, thanks for reading.


	2. An Absolute Mess…

I could hardly believe it was real but here I was standing on the airship looking out the reinforced glass windows over the familiar scenes that made up my entire world until just a day ago. It was a strange feeling soaring above and away from everything I'd ever known but I was excited as it was another step on the path to becoming a Huntsman and thus a life of adventure and meaning...or that's what I tell myself. Though I could do without the airship flying so high…I'm rather…petrified of heights.

However…looking around I immediately felt like I stood out too much. I was one of the tallest of the new Beacon students and my distinct jacket didn't lend itself to being easily ignored. I pulled my collar up and tried to hide my face in an attempt not to stand out. I'd managed to get comfortable around my classmates at Signal as I'd seen them hundreds upon hundreds of times but now surrounded by a group of almost complete strangers my asocial tendencies started to bubble to the surface. That wasn't the only problems though…

To put it bluntly I found myself in the worst possible situation I could've imagined. Surrounded by strangers a year older than me who probably are infinitely better than me, thousands of feet in the air, trying not to make a fool of myself as I'm pretty sure everybody knows that I wasn't supposed to be here…or am I overthinking things again? No, I don't think so…Unless I am and then I'm making this even harder on myself and am worrying myself for nothing and am setting myself up for failure and embarrassment.

I sat down and tucked my knees close to my chest as I stared out the window trying to imagine that I was anywhere but on this airship. I tried to think of anything else but the present just kept butting itself into my mind until I found a distinct bump against my shoulder.

"Hello stranger, didn't expect to see you here." I heard a familiar female voice say as I felt an arm rested on my shoulder.

I glanced to my side and immediately recognized the familiar face of Nova standing next to me, one of my friends attending Beacon this year. She had short curly walnut brown hair with a slightly red tint due to it previously being dyed deep red. It trailed just past the base of her neck. As typical of most people around my age she was substantially shorter than me, I'm not entirely sure of her height but if I remember correctly it's around five feet four inches. She has a standard build with a light skin tone and olive green eyes. She wore a light green hoodie that was a bit too long in the sleeves, light blue jeans ripped at the knees, and standard black combat boots. A metal pin of her emblem, a sun ablaze in flames that stretched upwards, was displayed proudly over her heart on a black strap that was firmly slung over her left shoulder and hugging her right side.

"Well to be honest I didn't expect to find myself here…" I sighed quietly as I sat staring out at the city.

"So what's the story? How'd you end up here then?" She asked.

"They were one kid short to split the kids into even teams of four and I just so happened to be their first choice…" I sighed.

"Oh well congratulations I guess so…why are you sitting over here just staring out the window?" She asked.

"What else would I be doing?" I countered.

"I don't know but aren't you afraid of heights?" She asked.

"People are worse." I responded promptly.

"Ah, well fair enough." She said sitting down next to me.

"Aren't the other two here as well?" I asked glancing around.

"Yeah, actually Jessie was the one who spotted you." She said pointing to the other side of the ship.

"I'm not even surprised, I swear that guy has a built in friend-radar. There's no hiding from him." I sighed with a slight smile.

As if on cue he came up from behind and sat down on my other side and I felt somebody sit down behind me which I immediately knew to be the fourth member of our little group.

Jessie is a more…extroverted guy than me. He stands at roughly five feet and ten inches, has an average build for his size, has short messy dark brown hair and complimenting sideburns, light walnut brown eyes, and an average white complexion. When I glanced to my side I saw he was wearing a dark blue pullover hoodie with his emblem, twin dust revolvers crossed over an ace of diamonds with a letter J just above the crossing barrels, displayed in black and dark gray on his back, black jeans, and matching black combat boots.

Rachel on the other hand is roughly the same height as Nova if not a little taller, has a slim build, has shoulder length wavy light brown hair, matching light brown eyes, and besides me maybe the palest complexion of our group. She was wearing a bright red unzipped hoodie, a black undershirt, dark jeans, a belt slung around her hips with a metal pin of her emblem, a rose with four arrows crossed over it displayed over a shield, and the standard black combat boots that were recommended for most Huntsmen in training.

"Congrats on early acceptance J." Rachel said leaning against my back.

"It's not really a big deal. They literally just needed another kid to have a number divisible by four." I shrugged.

"Yeah but they chose you. Out of every other available student they chose you. That's something isn't it?" Jessie asked nudging my arm with his shoulder.

"You've seen kids from my grade during class competitions, you think that's impressive?" I asked.

"Fair enough." He shrugged.

"Let me guess, Mr. Xiao Long voted for you?" Nova guessed.

"Yep." I nodded.

"Called it. You owe my ten Lien, Rach." She said with a victorious chuckle.

"Who'd you think it was?" I asked.

"I was thinking Mr. B." Rachel admitted.

"Him? Really?" I asked raising my eyebrows with a slight smirk.

"Well he always seemed to like you most out of his students." Jessie pointed out.

"Eh no, he liked red girl more." I pointed out.

"Besides her." Jessie rolled his eyes.

"Fair enough but he still wouldn't do me a favor like that." I said shaking my head.

"He gave you private weapon training when he had spare time and helped you upgrade your weapons on multiple occasions." Rachel reminded me.

"…" I was struck by a sudden realization.

"He might actually have had something to do with that as well…" I said struck upside the head by the sudden realization.

"My god you're oblivious…" They all said in unison.

"Oh shut it." I said jabbing my elbows into the ones at my side.

With a blink a holographic screen appeared on the wall at the center of the ship. Curious as to what was up we turned to watch what appeared to be a news report.

"…The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa." The reporter said. "Thank you, Cyril. In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted…" the program was interrupted by a hologram of the lady that accompanied Ozpin yesterday.

"I remember her, she was there when Ozpin accepted me into Beacon. I wonder who she is…" I thought aloud.

"Something tells me you won't have to wait long to find out, she seems like some kinda teacher so she'll probably introduce herself." Jessie said.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon." she said cheerfully.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and training needed to protect our world." She announced before vanishing.

I glanced out the window and noticed we were fast approaching Beacon. I lit up with a mix of excitement and nervousness. I tapped my friends and pointed towards the rapidly growing castle-like shape of the Academy.

"Woah…I didn't think it'd be so…massive." I said realizing the sheer size of the Beacon for the first time.

"I mean it's not one of the most renowned Huntsman academies for nothing." Nova shrugged clearly not as impressed.

"I mean yeah, but still…" I said marveling at it.

"Yeah I have to take Julien's side on this one Nov, that is one big school." He said resting his arm on my shoulder.

"True enough." Rachel nodded.

"Oh and another upside of you finally being in the same grade as us we can introduce you to somebody we've been meaning to for a while." Rachel realized.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"You'll see when we find her." Nova smirked.

"…her?" I asked my anxiety spiking hard.

"Oh don't worry she's not a girly girl like the ones you're so afraid of." Jessie tried to reassure me.

"That could be a good or bad thing…" I sighed.

"Well we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, ay?" He sighed.

"Fine…" I grumbled.

Soon after the ship began its descent and soon enough we landed on the Academy's grounds and the doors opened. Everybody started to make their way out but suddenly made way as a kid holding his mouth ran by dripping barf from his mouth.

"Gross!" I exclaimed.

"I guess some people are even worse with flying than you…" Nova said amazed and disgusted.

"Let's just get out of here…" I sighed pushing forward leading my friends out of the ship.

As we stepped off the ship we say vomit boy hunched over the nearest trashcan and chuckled a bit realizing how comical the situation was.

Moving on I realized dozens of students carrying their weapons around and was impressed big time. I may not do the people thing but I get weapons and there were so many unique ones. While I nerded out internally I kept it to myself but my friends caught me starring as other kids passed.

"You really need to work on your social skills…" Nova noted.

"Make me." I said sticking my tongue out at them.

"You might regret saying that…" Rachel said quietly.

"We'll see." I shrugged confidently and continued walking towards the main building.

Eventually we found our way to the lockers where we stored our gear and made our way to the auditorium along with all the other students. We were standing around waiting for something to happen when suddenly I felt one of my friends grab my hand and start to drag me through the crowd.

"I see her, she's over there." Nova said as she dragged me along just ahead of our other two friends.

After a couple seconds I found myself slightly disoriented standing with my friends and two figures I didn't quite recognize. I shook my head slightly to clear my vision and glanced up at the new figures a bit nervously.

The first was a tall girl standing around five feet and eight inches, with a muscular but not overly so build, long golden blonde hair that trailed freely down her back, with lilac eyes, a fair complexion, who dressed in a stylish but rather…open outfit that immediately made me even more uncomfortable about the entire situation.

Her tan jacket bore her midriff, left her chest rather open, and had short puffy sleeves with black cuffs. Under her jacket she wore a low cut yellow crop top with some sort of black symbol over the right side of her chest, most likely her emblem. A light orange scarf was wrapped around her neck. On her lower body she wore a brown belt covered by a pleated brown material from hip to hip around her waist. Under it a long, white, asymmetrical piece of material reached down to her knee on her right along with a pair of black mini-shorts. A pair of knee high boots covered up the majority of her legs and were complimented by a pair of orange over-the-knee socks coming out of the boots. On her hands she wore what seemed to be two large golden bracelets and black fingerless gloves.

Behind her was a smaller far more familiar figure of a short girl standing at maybe five feet and two inches, with a slim build, black neck length choppy hair that fades into deep red at the tips, silver eyes, and a complexion paler than my own.

She was dressed in her usual get up of a black long sleeved dress with a high collar and a red trim on the sleeves, a black waist clincher with red lacing up the front, and a red trim around her skirt, thick black stockings, and standard black combat boots with red laces and trims around the top and red soles. Her outfit is brought together by a crimson hooded cloak fastened to her shoulders by cross shaped pins. Her emblem was displayed proudly on her large belt slung around her hips at an angle. As expected of a gun nut like her she had bullets around her waist along with a pouch.

"Hey, you guys made it!" The Blonde girl exclaimed.

"It's good to see you again, Yang." Rachel smiled.

"Same to you guys, it's been far too long! Wait till you hear this, my sister claims she actually exploded earlier, like with dust." She said going down the line and hugging each of my friends until she stopped right in front of me.

"Who's this?" She asked.

"Remember our younger friend we always talked about? This is him." Jessie explained.

"Oh so you're Julien, I've heard some pretty cool things about you." She said enthusiastically stepping closer to me causing me to instinctively step back.

"Oh really…" I said looking away from her.

"Christ on a fucking bike, somebody kill me." I thought to myself.

"Yeah, they told me you're some kinda tough guy not to mention you're supposedly really cool, if not a little cold, and maybe even as punny as me. I might have to see for myself if they were just messin' or not though." She teased.

"…" There was silence as I tried to think of what to say but even more so when I realized Red girl was basically burning a hole into me with an intense stare.

"Um…hi?" I said tilting my head to the side.

"Finally he speaks! You couldn't have just said that like…several months ago?!" She said jumping up in my face

"You two know each other?" Yang asked.

"He's that kid that kept ignoring me at Signal!" Ruby exclaimed.

"So quiet kid and tough kid are the same guy…interesting…" Yang said leaning in studying me.

"Guys help me…" I said glancing over to my friends.

"Seriously, like now!" I growled quietly.

"On it." Jessie said pulling me away from them.

"Now let's try this again…" He sighed.

"J, introduce yourself." He said.

I let out a heavy sigh but fixed my collar and looked up at them.

"I'm Julien Thompson, my friends usually call me J." I said fighting hard to curb my anxiety and succeeding in saying it without stuttering or messing up.

"I'm Yang Xiao Long, call me Yang." She introduced herself.

"And I'm Ruby Rose! But you can call me…Ruby. I'm Yang's little sister." She said, apparently also struggling with people a bit based on that delivery...

"You!" We all heard an unknown voice call from right behind me.

I jumped hard and whipped around as a short girl, maybe five feet three inches at most, with long white hair, a rather slim build, ice blue eyes similar to mine, and a snow white complexion stormed past and right up to Ruby.

Her hair was pulled back into an off-center ponytail on her right side pinned with an icicle shaped tiara and bangs that fell over her forehead. She wore a thigh-length strapless dress with faded from white to pale blue at the hem. A small piece of black lace sat at the front of her neckline and the dress's hem was designed to resemble snowflakes. Over the dress she wore a bell-sleeved bolero with the same color fade as her dress from her shoulder down to her wrist that had a red interior lining and a ruffled collar. Around her neck a small apple pendent hung on a small silver chain. Silver rectangular earrings hung from her ears and her wedged heeled boots were as white as her dress and lined with red. Around her waist a thin white sash is tied with a pouch attached to the back. It was Weiss, what was she doing here?! I locked up and stepped out of sight. I couldn't be sure she'd recognize me after all this time but I couldn't risk it.

Ruby jumped into Yang's arms as the mystery girl stormed up to her.

"-Oh god, it's happening again!" Ruby exclaimed.

"You're lucky both of us weren't blown off the cliff!" Snow girl exclaimed.

"Oh my god you actually exploded…" Yang said in a low and debatably shocked voice.

"It was an accident! It was an accident!" Ruby exclaimed as her sister set her down.

After a brief conversation between Ruby and snow girl that left me completely confused but a little curious I peeked out from behind my friends who I was hiding behind. Her eyes locked with mine and I held her gaze for a split second before glancing away. I watched her a little longer, she had that kinda look of vague familiarity on her face before turning away but I could tell she didn't fully recognize me. I let out an enormous mental sigh of relief but only gave the slightest exhale from my nose to show my relief. They continued talking back and forth about dust and things but I wasn't really interested and as their conversation came to a close, Ozpin stepped onto the stage and walked up to the microphone.

"Ahem…I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Ozpin said before walking away.

Professor Goodwitch then stepped up to the microphone.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." She said before she too walked off.

"He seemed kind of off." Yang commented.

"Yeah, it's almost as if he wasn't even there." Ruby added.

"I'm a natural blonde you know." Vomit boy said randomly appearing beside us.

Weiss facepalmed and mentally I thought to myself how the hell could this day get any weirder…

Luckily it didn't as the day drew to a close and the moon sat high in the night sky all the students gathered in the ballroom changed into their sleep-wear. Unfortunately as all the students gathered in the same room that meant girls and guys slept literally right next to each other which left me feeling uncomfortable. My sleep wear ironically was just a thin hoodie and sweatpants but I supplemented it with a cloak scarf to lend a bit of extra comfort. Being buried in heavier clothes always did bring me at least some comfort…

Me and my friends had set up right behind Ruby and Yang. While my friends were more interested in talking about the school year. I overheard Yang and Ruby talking about friends and cringed out of sympathy as I saw Yang pull Ruby over towards a girl she clearly didn't want to talk to. I wished her luck in my mind as I sighed and closed my eyes slipping into sleep.


	3. The Huntsman Trial

I awoke early as the morning light filtered through the massive windows of the ballroom and rolled onto my stomach trying to simply get away from the harsh light.

"It's time to get up, J. Don't you dare fall asleep again." I heard Nova call from beside me.

I threw my pillow at her hard knocking her from her side onto her back earning laughter from Rachel and Jessie who were also already up.

"I know…" I sighed dragging myself back onto my knees then slowly climbing to my feet.

"Let's go get our stuff." I said stretching out my arms as I yawned.

We made our way to our lockers and changed into our normal clothing in changing rooms off to the side and armed ourselves without usual gear. Ironically our lockers ended up being just across from Yang's and Ruby's which caused me to notice a bit of a theme about who I could expect to be seeing a lot of this year…

As I worked with my gear preparing myself I heard a rather fanatic girl pestering some guy which I couldn't help but feel bad for as she ran around with absurd antics.

"Wonder what those two are so worked up about…" Ruby remarked as they moved past us and exited the locker area.

"Oh who knows…So! You seem awfully chipper this morning." Yang noted.

"Hmph! Yep, no more awkward small talk or getting to know you stuff. Today I get to let my sweetheart do the talking." She said basically drooling over her currently folded up weapon.

"I feel that. I've been itching to get to the action." I thought to myself aloud.

"Same." Jessie noted spinning one of his twin dust revolvers around his finger.

"Well remember Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation. If you wanna grow up you're gonna have to meet new people and learn to work together." Yang pointed out.

"God, you sound like Mr. Xiao Long…" I grumbled.

"Exactly!" Ruby said pointing her arm at me while continuing to look at her sister.

"Well Mr. Xiao Long always did seem to give good advice…" Rachel noted testing her dust bow's string.

"Okay, first of all what does meeting people have to do with fighting? And secondly I don't need people to help me grow up, I drink milk!" Ruby exclaimed.

My team and I chuckled a bit to ourselves but I understood where she was coming from and actually agreed with her rather heavily.

"I mean I don't see how meeting new people is supposed to help us defeat monsters or go on epic adventures. I have a few friends and that's all I ever really needed. It just seems like a waste of time to try and meet other people." I chipped coming up alongside Ruby.

"Yeah." She said crossing her arms.

"Well you're you J, you're a bit of a special case…" Nova said twirling her glaive.

"But what about when we form teams?" Yang asked.

"I don't know…I-I'll just be on your team…or something…" She said turning back to her sister.

"I mean I guess I'll just be on my friends' team…right?" I asked looking over to my friends.

Nova and Yang both looked incredibly uncomfortable as they fiddled with their hair and clothing.

"Maybe you should try being on someone else's team…?" They said together.

"Oof my heart, art thou, my close friend, Nova and new person Yang trying to say that thou doth not wish us to be a part of thy teams?" I said in an overly dramatic tone speaking in old language to add unnecessary flare to the whole thing.

"What? No…of course I do! I just thought it'd help you break out of your shell." Yang suggested.

"Yeah I know you struggle with people so maybe talking with people outside our group might help you…" Nova chipped in.

"What?!" Ruby and I exclaimed in unison.

"We don't need to break out of our shells that's absolutely-" Ruby exclaimed but was cut off.

"Ridiculous! There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday! I would've remembered having to count that high…Oh why does this have to happen todaaaaay?" Vomit boy whined walking straight between us.

"…" We all just stood in muted surprise.

"Alright then…" I remarked scratching the back of my neck as my friends awkwardly fiddled with their weapons.

"Wait, don't you have a weapon, Julien?" Yang noted realizing I wasn't carrying anything visibly.

"Yeah, I wear it all the time…well most of the time…showers are a thing and well I can't really…you know what never mind you don't need to know that please forget I said that last part. The point is yes I do have a weapon." I fumbled awkwardly.

"Are you going to show them or are you going to save that surprise for later?" Rachel asked twanging her bow string.

"I'll show it off when it's time." I shrugged.

"I mean it's not the most impressive thing in the world but it gets the job done…" I said continuing to scratch the back my head.

"I mean it's more impressive than what we have…" Jessie said stopping his dust revolver in his grip as he sat across from me.

"No! Your dust revolvers are easily one of the deadliest and most accurate guns around and work perfectly with your semblance, Nova has a freaking fire glaive that leaves massive trails of fire and can launch fireballs at things, and Rachel has a bow that can rapidly fire an infinite amount of arrows made out of any type of dust she wants! There's nothing special about what I have." I shook my head.

Jessie let out a sigh but smirked and just gave a slight nod.

"Whatever you say pal." He shrugged holstering his pistol in his custom dual holster at his sides.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" **_THUD_**

"I think I heard a thud…" I said pointing with my thumb behind me towards the source of the very Jaune-like noise.

With that we all turned around to see Jaune pinned to a locker with what looked like a spear several rows of lockers down.

"Would all first year students please report to Beacon cliff for Initiation. Again, all first year students report to Beacon cliff immediately." Professor Goodwitch called over the school's PA system.

As a red head in spartan-like armor passed Jaune she pulled what must've been her spear from his hood and he slumped to the floor very much so like a sack of dropped potatoes.

"Having some trouble there lady-killer?" Yang asked as Ruby offered Jaune a hand up.

"I don't understand…my dad said all women look for is confidence! Where did I go wrong…" Jaune whined.

"I would guess the part right before you got launched screaming the whole way across the locker room." I remarked.

"Funny…" He rolled his eyes.

"I know, aren't I?" I smirked.

"Snow angel probably wasn't the best start…" Yang pointed out referencing a bit of the conversation we did overhear.

"That's putting it lightly…" I thought to myself.

Ruby helped Jaune up surprisingly easy for a girl of such a small stature and let him lean on her for support.

"C'mon, Jaune. Let's go." She said as she helped him along walking with us.

"Hey, my name's Julien. I'm the guy who made the snarky remark at your expense." I introduced myself.

"I'm Jaune Arc, I'm officially the first Beacon first year of this year to have been launched across the room…" He said jabbing at himself.

"A bit of a complicated title…" I thought to myself.

"Fair enough, just call me Jaune." He said as we started walking on his own.

We made our way to the cliff talking the whole way there and quickly hit it off as fairly decent newly-no-longer-strangers…or new acquaintances…that sounds better. When we arrived we were instructed to take a place on the designated suspicious looking squares overlooking a cliff.

"For years you have trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin stated,

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates…today." Goodwitch informed us.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is within your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next 4 years." Ozpin informed us.

Many of the students murmured and voiced their disbelief.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You'll meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die. You will be monitored for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one relic, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" Ozpin explained.

Jaune raised his hand. "

Yeah, um, sir-" Jaune was interrupted.

"Good! Now, take your positions." Ozpin ignored him.

Suddenly the first kid way down the line on platform one was launched head first into the forest. I let out a gulp when what he meant by landing sank in to me but I prepared myself, I knew this wasn't going to be easy so there was no point in wimping out now.

Jaune asked again and again but both instructors ignored him. I'm pretty sure he kept getting ignored but as I was in place before him I wouldn't know. I was the first of my group to launch right after Yang and Ruby. Yang being as cool as she was winked at us before extending her bracelets into what looked like shotgun gauntlets, putting on a set of aviator sunglasses, and launching into the forest. Ruby went with a cocky smile knowing full well that she had this in the bag.

Then it was my turn. Determined to overcome my fear of heights I turned to my friends and gave them a wide smirk and a two fingered wave before being catapulted through the air at what felt like two hundred miles an hour. Terrified at first I soon realized how free it felt and plus even if I hit the ground at a poor angle my tough aura would soak up the damage like it was nothing.

"WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!" I called as I soared over the tree tops.

With a flick of my wrists two silver and black accented gauntlets extended out of my leather jacket's sleeves and formed forward over my hands covering them in articulated armored steel gloves and back covering the lower halves of my forearms providing protection and the housing for the main damage dealers of my signature weapon. Sleek but powerful pistons were built into the outside of the gauntlets generating immense force when I throw a punch easily multiplying my strength by a factor of ten. They shone dully in the sunlight and had several scratches apparent not having been polished nor buffed in a while but other than that fully maintained in perfect condition and I didn't fuss over the looks too much if anything it made them look cooler.

As my upward momentum halted and I began to fall I punched a tree in half that got in the way of my descent, kicked off another, and stuck the landing on my feet rolling forward to minimize the damage taken and transitioning perfectly onto my feet before breaking into a forward dash.

"Man, I'm awesome…" I said quietly to myself as I sprinted through the underbrush my long legs making massive but quick strides.

I dashed through the forest for ages searching the forest for my friends or at least Ruby or Yang since they were pretty alright too. Ironically it wouldn't be long until I quite literally ran into Nova knocking both of us into a tree on accident.

"Ay watch where you're going tank boy!" She said shaking her head dazed.

"Sorry, Nova" I said chuckling to myself.

"This isn't funny!" She growled.

I suddenly went stiff as my ears picked up a twig snap and a distinct chorus of growls start up slowly from around us.

"Show time, Nov." I said raising my fists.

"Yeah…" She said twirling her glaive igniting it leaving massive trails of flame as she twirled it.

Within seconds a dozen wolf-like black figures descended on us like locusts and we engaged in a massive battle for our lives. Now we've been friends for years but me and Nova have never fought together once and I found that her sweeping flame attacks that hit so many enemies were troublesome to work around as I had to close on a singular target before being able to take them out.

I broke the first one in half that lunged at me and turned the next ones head to mist with a powerful right hook. I dashed in towards a beowolf and dropped into a low stance and brought my fist up under its chin taking its head clean off and ducked and as another swiped at me from the side and went to try and finish it off for opening itself up but found myself having to dodge a fierce slash of fire that cut through it just inches over my head.

"Watch it! I'm trying to fight here!" I growled.

"You call that fighting? I've easily taken down three times the Grimm you have in half the time!" She remarked.

"No wonder with all that senseless murder flailing that I've had to be working around for several minutes now!" I growled.

"At least I'm doing something!" She barked..

"Do something less detrimental to my health!" I shouted ducking and dodging around the razor sharps claws and fangs of several of the wolf-like creatures.

Then out of nowhere I felt a sharp impact to my side and was flung back clean through a tree causing my aura to lightly flash ice blue. I felt a dull pain through my left side but overall was barely even scratched. I gritted my teeth in anger as an Ursa stepped out of the bushes I was standing by just a moment ago. I launched myself forward with a sudden rush of anger-supplemented strength and hit it dead center sending it flying through several massive trees before dissipating into foul black smoke.

That's when I noticed that there were far more Grimm than I had realized initially and we were being surrounded by a mix of Beowolves and Ursa. I kept slipping and dodging most the clumsy wild strikes of the beasts but with so many of them throwing such fast and erratic swings I was getting caught by more strikes then I'd care to admit. Eventually me and Nova found ourselves pushed back to back as we fought off what seemed like to be an unending wave of Grimm.

"Nova, do the thing." I said.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Unless you just feel like standing there watching me punch a literal legion of pissed off wolf monsters to death then yes, now would you just do it already?!" I growled as I fended off a beowolf which had clamped it's jaws around my left forearm.

"But you're standing right next to me!" She said twirling her glaive around and cutting down several other unfortunate nearby Grimm.

"Just do it! I don't know if you noticed but I'm kinda in a bind here!" I remarked pulling my arm back and slammed it down along with the beowolf attached to it into the ground and stomping its head into bits.

"Fine, just don't blame me if you get a little singed." She rolled her eyes.

She closed her eyes and in a second she seemed to go up in flames as her semblance activated completely masking her in fire. Knowing what came next I rolled behind a confused Ursa and used it as a shield. In a second the entire world in my view went brilliant orange as a massive shockwave of fire wiped any trace of the Grimm and any other kind of life short of the two of us from the face of the planet.

My aura crackled a bright icy blue and slowly returned to normal but I could very clearly feel how much damage my aura had absorbed which left me feeling tired and slightly sore but still standing.

"Nice one Nov…god I hate fire..." I said breathing heavy but giving her a thumbs-up.

"Thanks, you good?" She asked.

"Yeah I'm fine. My aura held up, I'm a bit winded and well-done but I'm still good to go." I said with a casual shrug.

"Good to go where is the question though…" I continued looking around.

"Ozpin said something about a temple but wasn't exactly descriptive about where it might be…" She sighed.

"Well he said the northern side of the forest right?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think so." She nodded.

"Lucky us, I have a fairly good sense of direction. Plus when I was flying I noticed a set of ruins far in that direction so if anything I bet that's where we should be headed." I said pointing in the direction I recalled noticing stone ruins.

"I'm kinda worried about the other two though, they don't exactly have your direction sense J." Nova reminded me as we began to walk in the direction I pointed.

"With Jessie's sense of direction we'll be lucky if we ever see him again let alone at the ruined temple." I rolled my eyes.

"True enough." She said walking alongside me.

There was a brief silence as we both tried to think of something to talk about but was cut short when I dug my hand into my pocket and pulled out my pair of headphones.

"What kinda music you like?" I asked scrolling through my playlist.

"Hm…surprise me." She shrugged.

We walked, listened to music, and sang along with what we knew as we made our way towards the ruins which ended up taking us a decent while and shockingly enough when we finally found our way to the temple Jessie and Rachel had beat us to it.

"Oh my god they actually made it before us…" Nova said surprised.

"I blame where we landed." I shrugged.

"You're just jealous because we made it first." Jessie said comically sticking his tongue out.

"First of your group, we made it first." Yang said leaning out from behind them and twirling what looked like a golden horse statuette.

"Pfft, technicalities…" He shrugged twirling one of his dust pistols.

We moved over to the temple and saw several pedestals with different large chess pieces stood on top of them.

"So these are the relics then?" Nova asked.

"Looks like it, what else would they be here for?" Rachel asked.

"So which ones should we take?" Jessie asked.

"Hm…I say we take the white bishop pieces." I suggested.

"Why?" Jessie asked tilting his head to the side.

"I don't know, I like chess and think that the bishop piece is pretty cool." I shrugged.

"Fair enough." Jessie shrugged as well.

With that we swiped the pieces and joined Yang and that girl I saw Ruby talking with before I fell asleep last night. Suddenly we all heard a high pitched scream in the distance.

Some girl's in trouble!" Yang exclaimed.

"Blake, did you hear that?" She asked.

Out of nowhere we heard someone shouting from directly above us.

"Heads up!" Ruby was screaming falling out of the sky.

She fell for a couple more feet before being intercepted by Jaune who was launched at an angle which they collided and sent them both into the branches of a tree.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked glancing at Yang.

"I-" Yang tried to respond but was cut off when a massive Ursa walked out of the woods roaring as it approached us.

It was flailing unnaturally wildly until a sudden pink explosion behind it caused it to fall forward and the obnoxious girl from the locker room rolled off it's back shouting "yeehaw!".

She stood up and looked back at the dead and dissipating Ursa and pouted.

"Aww. It's broken…" She said disappointed.

The quiet guy she was pestering earlier came out from behind the tree line breathing heavily.

"Nora? Please…don't ever do that again…" He said shaking his head.

Seemingly paying no mind to him she bolted over to the temple and at high speed and she marveled over them with an audible "Ooooo" before snatching up the white rook piece.

"I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle." She sang as she posed with the rook.

"NORA!" He called out annoyed.

"Hehehe, coming Ren!" She called and they joined the group gathering around the temple.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked.

"I-I…" Yang tried to say.

"Yes, yes she did." I nodded with a sigh.

Then suddenly bursting through the tree line the red haired spartan girl from earlier that speared Jaune came running in with a massive Grimm Deathstalker on her heels.

"Jaune!" She called out.

"Pyrrha!" He called back from the tree he was stuck in.

"Whoa!" Ruby exclaimed as she jumped down from the tree rolling as she landed and transitioning into a standing position.

"Ruby?" Yang asked surprised.

"Yang!" Ruby cheered excitedly going for a hug or high five…or something.

"Nora!" Nora shouted jumping up between Yang and Ruby denying the intended action.

"Did that girl just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked again.

"What is this a QnA session?" I scoffed rolling my eyes.

Yang had clearly had it as her eye visibly changed from lilac to bright crimson as she let out a low growl.

"Grrrrr! I can't take it anymore!" She said stomping her foot causing a large explosion around her as her hair literally started emanating flames.

"Could everyone just chill out for five seconds before something cray happens again?" She shouted.

Maybe two seconds after Ren ran over and joined the group still breathing heavily.

"Um, Yang…" Ruby said in a quiet voice looking up.

"How could you leave me?!" Weiss called from the back of a Grimm Nevermore that flew over the clearing the temple was set in.

"I said 'jump'…" Ruby called back.

"She's going to fall." Blake pointed out.

"She'll be fine." Ruby assured us.

"She's falling." Ren pointed out.

Jaune attempted to romantically catch her but just ended up being the cushion for her fall causing a loud cracking noise to come from his back.

"My hero…" Weiss said sarcastically.

"My back…" Jaune said weakly.

I cringed at the sight but we still had problems to deal with. We had two of the biggest types of common Grimm bearing down on us a Nevermore and a Deathstalker and we still needed to get our relics back to the cliff.

With smack from one of the Deathstalker's claw Pyrrha was sent flying and landed right in front of the group.

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together." Yang said with mock enthusiasm.

"Not if I can help it." Ruby said before charging at the Deathstalker head on.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang called.

Ruby transformed her weapon into its combat mode and used a shot from her sniper rifle scythe to launch her forward at the Deathstalker but she was easily batted aside by the Deathstalker's claws. She was knocked onto her stomach facing back towards us. She shakily climbed back to her feet and looked back at us.

"D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!" She assured us before turning to see the massive Grimm looming over her.

She jumped and fired her weapon launching her away from it and she started to sprint back over to us as we ran to help her.

"RUBY!" Yang called sprinting far ahead of the rest of us.

We were almost close enough to help but the Nevermore circled above us and chased Ruby firing massive razor sharp feathers at both her and us stopping us in our tracks and pinning Ruby by her cloak. She tried to pull herself free but couldn't.

"Ruby, get out of there!" Yang called.

"I'm trying!" She shouted back tugging hard on her cloak.

The Deathstalker was once again looming over her but this time she had no way to run. The Deathstalker raised its stinger to finish her off. Fortunately however, Weiss being the smallest of us managed to make it through the maze of massive feathers first and created a wall of ice saving Ruby and trapping the Deathstalker's stinger.

"You are so childish." Weiss said holding her weapon, a rapier with a dust revolver chamber at the hilt.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked opening her eyes.

"Oh thank god." I said heaving a sigh of relief along with everyone else.

"-And dimwitted, and hyperactive. And don't even get me started on your fighting style" Weiss continued.

"And I suppose, I can be a bit…difficult. But if we're going to do this we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off I'll be…nicer." Weiss offered.

"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this." Ruby explained.

"You're fine." Weiss assured her before walking off.

Ruby pulled the giant feather out of her cloak and looked past the wall of ice to see the Deathstalker's tail was completely stuck and it was thrashing wildly to try and free itself.

"Whoa!" Ruby exclaimed with an audible gasp

Yang sprinted up to Ruby and basically tackled her in a hug.

"So happy you're okay!" Yang exclaimed.

Suddenly the Nevermore let out a fierce screech and we were all reminded of the grimm situation we found ourselves in…heh.

"Guys, that thing's circling back." Jaune noted.

"What are we gonna do?" He asked.

"Look there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss pointed out.

"I mean in all honesty taking the Grimm head on would be more trouble than it's worth when we can just get the relics and leave…" Rachel pointed out.

"They're right. Our mission is to grab and artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby agreed.

"Run and live. That is an idea I can get behind." Jaune nodded.

We all picked our respective artifacts and ran towards the direction of the cliffs. We moved as a group to make sure nobody fell behind but the Nevermore and Deathstalker were still right on our tails as we reached what looked like an old ruined bridge at the base of the cliffs.

The Nevermore being faster than us overtook us and started firing its deadly hail of feathers down upon us once again but luckily for us the bridge's construction provided perfect cover from them. It perched itself on a tower near the center of the bridge and once more let out a terrible screech.

Before long the Deathstalker had caught up and forced us out of our cover. Now we absolutely needed to get to that bridge. We all broke out of our cover and began to sprint along the side of our cover for the bridge.

"Run!" Jaune shouted.

"Nora! Distract it!" Ren called.

Nora ran out into the open straight down the middle of the kind of corridor that lead to the bridge and as expected the Nevermore unleashed it's feather rain once again. She easily avoided every last one as if she could've done it in her sleep and pulled out her grenade launcher and rained down pink explosives upon it in response.

It flew away dazed for a little and we all dashed as fast as possible directly towards the bridge. The Deathstalker snuck up on Nora and tried to attack her from behind but Ren and Blake intercepted it and Weiss used her semblance to launch both of them towards the bridge.

"Go! Go!" Pyrrha ordered transforming her spear into a rifle and raining fire down on the Deathstalker.

We all ran by her but Ren too stopped to fire back at the Deathstalker before retreating along with Pyrrha across the bridge. The Deathstalker didn't dare attempt to cross the bridge but as we made it about half way across the bridge the Nevermore dive-bombed the bridge and completely destroyed the middle of it sending all of us flying and splitting us up on different parts of the colossal bridge. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Nora, Jaune, and all three of my old friends all landed on the side closest to the cliffs while myself Pyrrha, and Ren all landed on the side with the Deathstalker which closed in on us.

"We gotta get over there!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Let's do this!" Nora said enthusiastically.

"But, uh…I can't make that jump." Jaune pointed out.

She knocked him down with her grenade launch before transforming it into a massive hammer and launching the two of them over to our side. Jaune landed beside me and Nora brought her hammer down hard on the Deathstalker's head disorienting it and causing it to stumble back a couple steps. It lashed out at her but using her hammer's built in grenade launcher she launched herself back accidentally knocking Blake off the edge.

"That was graceful." I remarked rolling my eyes.

Nora remained silent.

We watched as Blake drew her weapon that looked like a mix of a sword, pistol, and grappling hook and latched it onto the bridge swinging under it and landing on the Nevermore's back.

Turning back to focus on the Deathstalker I didn't have time to worry about the Nevermore, that was their issue now and we had our own problems. I rushed in and smacked the Deathstalker's claw away with my elbow as it lashed out at me knocking it back and leaving it open as I threw a vicious overhand right with the entire weight of my body behind it fracturing it's armored shell around its head and body.

It let out a sound that could only be described as nightmare fuel as it writhed in pain for a second before lashing out with its claw catching me in the face like a textbook left hook. The strike turned me a full one-eighty degrees around and knocked me down to a knee. I shook my head and growled turning back to it and cracking my knuckles.

"Is that the best you've got? That's actually pathetic." I asked wiping my face with my right fist.

It struck out at me with its stinger while I was still unbalanced but Pyrrha deflected it's strike with her shield and Jaune slashed his sword across its left stinger keeping it distracted. Ren rushed it pouring constant machine-pistol fire into it, grabbing onto its stinger as it pulled back riding it and attempting to shoot it off. It screamed in pain but didn't shift its focus to Ren as we pulled back to give Nora space to strike it with her grenades setting it off balance. Seeing an opening Pyrrha launched her spear right into one of its massive orange eyes. The Deathstalker whipped its tail throwing Ren against a stone pillar knocking him out temporarily.

"Ren!" Nora called concerned.

Jaune pointed it out to Pyrrha and she threw her shield like a disk which easily sliced its stinger off causing it to fall onto itself and easily puncture it's already damaged shell before returning to Pyrrha's hand.

"Nora, nail it!" Jaune called.

"Heads up." Nora called.

Pyrrha understood and raised her shield above her as Nora jumped onto her and used her grenade launcher and the momentum from Pyrrha jumping to launch her through the air and land slamming the stinger sinking it fully into the Deathstalker's center killing it

We looked back to see that the others were handling the Nevermore rather easily finishing it off with a flashy plan that ended with Ruby decapitating it by dragging it up the cliff with her scythe helped by Weiss's glyphs.

"Woah." I said genuinely impressed.

"We should regroup with the others. We still need to return these artifacts after all." Pyrrha pointed out.

After a little gap-jumping we regrouped with the others and made our way back to the cliff to complete our mission.

When we returned we were directed back into the auditorium and were instructed to stand in designated groups and wait for Ozpin's announcement. My friends and I made up one of several groups present at stage side waiting to be called up for team announcement.

Ozpin strutted out onto the stage and leaned into the microphone slightly before clearing his throat.

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark." He called and they stepped up to the stage.

"The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as…Team CRDL [Cardinal]. Lead by…Cardin Winchester." He announced.

We all clapped for them as is polite as they nodded and stepped off the stage.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie." He called and they too stepped onto the stage and presented themselves in a line.

"The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as…Team JNPR [Juniper]." Ozpin announced.

Nora chuckled to herself and hugged Ren tightly.

"Lead by…Jaune Arc!" He finished.

Jaune was shocked.

"L-Lead by…?" He asked.

"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin nodded.

We clapped again but we clapped a little harder since we had fought side by side during initiation.

Pyrrha smiled widely and gave Jaune a friendly punch to the shoulder but he both wasn't expecting it and I assume Pyrrha put a little more than she intended to into it sending Jaune to the floor…I would be lying if I said I didn't laugh a bit along with the others but I kept it to a minimum, Jaune seemed like an alright guy and I didn't wanna give him too hard of a time.

"Julien Thompson, Nova Raymond, Jessie Blaire, Rachel Sharp." Ozpin called up.

The applause roared loud as we stepped onto the stage and I immediately felt uncomfortable under the eyes of so many people but I had experience with it so I managed to push the thought to the back of my head.

"The four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as…Team JNJR [Ginger]." He announced.

"Lead by…Julien Thompson." Ozpin said.

"What, me?!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, you." He nodded with a wide smirk.

"I hate my life…" I thought to myself.

Our new friends must've clapped their hands sore by how loud they were clapping as we made our way of the stage, me trying my best to just shrink away and not be seen.

"And finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as…Team RWBY [Ruby]. Lead by…Ruby Rose." He announced.

We clapped hard for them just as they did for us.

"I'm so proud of you!" Yang exclaimed hugging Ruby tight.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an…interesting year." He said finally turning and walking away from the mic.

"You could say that again…" I sighed to myself.

On our way out of the auditorium we were told our dorm room numbers by Professor Goodwitch and quickly made our way to our room. As soon as we made our way in we all just chose a bed and crashed on it claiming it as our own. This was definitely the start of something rather interesting indeed…


	4. Cold Past

**Author's note: **Sorry for the long wait on this one. Lots of family, school, and holiday things going on recently so this took a while to get down. Not gonna lie its a lot shorter than originally intended and I've had to rewrite it maybe five times despite my limited amount of time available for writing due to being legitimately unhappy with it time and time again. So this chapter is very short but has quite a bit of interesting developments about a certain cold tough guy of our's. So I'll just get out of your way and let you read, enjoy!

Time seemed to pass ridiculously quickly at Beacon with little to do save for classes. There was a training room of course which I spent a fair amount of time in but I still found it quite dull with a distinct lack of willing sparring partners and to make things worse airships to take students into the city during their downtime wouldn't be authorized for another week or so. With nothing really else to do I just focused on passing my classes which was easier said than done.

The subjects were mostly the same as taught at Signal just way…way more advanced. I swear it felt more like three years of difference instead of one in everything from usual history classes to Professor Port's lectures…the ones when he isn't boasting about how great he is for the entire class. Combat class, called Practical Application class at Beacon, is where I truly excelled but unlike in previous years I had peers that actually posed a serious challenge…it almost reminded me of A-uh…never mind. Not important.

Anyway, a few weeks had passed at Beacon but I would be lying if I said I did anything interesting at Beacon in that time save for avoid team RWBY and JNPR like the plague. The real interesting parts of those weeks were spent in Vale. To put it simply, I had some business in the city that needed personal attention and someone to talk to, alone.

I was walking down the sidewalk on the bad side of vale in my usual get-up save for a pair of sunglasses, a black scarf wrapped around face, and a black hoodie I wore under my normal leather jacket with the hood pulled over my eyes. Every now and then I shifted my around to keep my surroundings in check. I pulled out my scroll and checked the map. I was coming up on the spot. I kept walking and quickly slipped into an alley way and kept walking till I came upon a painted a silver door with an armed guard in a black suit and fedora with a bright red tie. When he saw me coming he shouldered his rifle and popped his sunglasses higher on his face.

"Hold it right there, pal. I'm gonna have to see some ID." He said as I walked right up to him.

I simply pulled out a black playing card with a glowing blue ace of clubs.

"I need to talk to Junior, now." I said a tinge of urgency and slight anger in my voice.

He simply nodded and let me inside. When I passed through the silver door I found myself on a balcony overlooking the dance floor of one of Junior's less known clubs. Music was playing lower than usual and the crowd seemed fairly small today but Mel and Mil were here so I knew Junior was. I walked down the stairs past the DJ and onto the dance floor heading towards the bar. Just before I made it to the bar Mel and Mil stepped in my way. In response I merely flicked out my wrists activating my gauntlets and pounded them together. That was enough for them to step aside, they remembered me well enough. I walked up to the bar and took a seat. Junior, the giant that he is, was washing glasses and placing them back under the bar until he noticed me.

"Can I help you?" He asked gruffly.

I rolled my shoulders and took off my little disguise at this point and looked him right in the eyes. I laid my arms up on the table and tapped away at it with my steel plated finger.

"We need to talk." I said staring him down a bright blue icy glint in my eyes.

"Heh, Ice…who woulda figured. Last I knew you were sitting pretty in Signal playing the innocent little school huntsman in training." He noted with a slight sigh.

"That's Julien to you Junior and things moved faster than expected. I'm attending Beacon now but there's a little snag you forgot to let me in on." I said picking a coin up from the bar and twirling it between my fingers.

"And that would be?" He asked.

"Oh nothing major…just the fact that a Schnee is attending the same school!" I growled slamming my fist down cracking the surface of the bar from end to end.

"Not my fault you didn't give me a heads-up that you were attending Beacon this year." He shrugged.

"Are you forgetting the fact that even that if I had gone through the years normally I still would've had to lay low next year? Seriously, one of the few people that could bring this whole thing I've got going on crashing down around me is living the literal next door down in the dorms and you're acting like everything is cool! If she recognizes me I'm done, plain and simple. You should be the expert on plain and simple all things considering so you can understand my surprise." I remarked an ice cold venom in my voice and a harsh blue glow growing slowly in my eye.

"Look, it's been a couple years now maybe she doesn't remember you. Plus even if she does it's not exactly like you're a stranger to disappearing so what has you so on edge?" He sighed.

"I like it here. I've made friends here and I've put my past behind me. I'm done with this whole business, the only reason I'm here is to let you know that if I go down…so will you." I said slapping the bar and pushing myself to my feet and turning away.

"Oh, I'm so scared kid. I've dealt with criminals with backgrounds several hundreds of times darker than your own. You come after me and you won't see the next day." He called after me.

I simply chuckled and with a shrug and a smug smirk across my face I looked back at him with an intense icy blue glow in my eye.

"You tell yourself that." I said and with that the room's temperature seemed to fall a couple hundred degrees and I could see everyone shudder slightly as I stuffed my hands into my jacket and simply walked out of the club.

I walked back up the street walking slowly and with a smirk on my face. If Junior thought he had anything on me he either didn't learn his lesson the first time or simply didn't realize who he was dealing with. It didn't matter, He might've been useful at one point but I didn't need him anymore. The only thing I had to worry about now was making sure the spoiled little snowflake didn't find me out. Luckily for me I had changed quite a bit in these last couple years owing to a massive growth spurt and a change in my style. Better to limit interaction with her though since personality-wise I'm still a whole lot like the old me…Ice. Besides that all the advantages were on my side so all I had to do was play it smart. Above everything I had to promise myself once more that I would hide my semblance. Some things are just a little too distinct to forget so easily. It was a handicap for sure but one I'd been living with for a while now. Now I've spent enough time away, best get back before my friends start questioning my excuse for disappearing.


End file.
